Mysterious Google Barge in Maine to be Scrapped

It looks like it just wasn't meant to be. Google's barge in Portland, Maine is being dismantled. The 63 shipping containers that created an imposing four-story structure will all be scrapped while the barge has been sold, the Portland Press Heraldreports.

Last year, two giant Google-owned barges appeared in San Francisco's Treasure Island and Portland Harbor, to a fair amount of head-scratching.

Were they meant to be floating data storage (for which Google apparently holds a patent), secret research facility, luxury exhibition space or Google Glass storefront? It was anyone's guess.

And it looks like no one will really know what was ever supposed to come of the Maine location. Google put the kibosh on the project, selling the barge to an unnamed international barging company and scrapping the 250-foot structure. At least Portland did get a little something out of it, as the city collected $400,000 in property taxes from the company during the year the barge was docked in the harbor.

The one in California is still intact, though the digital giant was forced to move it from San Francisco Bay to Stockton, Calif. in March, in light of not having the proper permits on top of complaints from citizens.

As carbon dioxide is burned to fuel our lives, a percentage of that carbon ends up in the world's oceans. The first step in fixing the problem is being able to accurately measure it. That's what Sunburst Sensors is doing.